What Ron DeSantis doesn't understand about America

The state of Florida is going to teach its middle schoolers that some enslaved Blacks benefitted from slavery because the slaves learned important vocational skills. The new African American history standards were approved by the Florida State Board of Education yesterday.

Here is a famous image that shows the good life lived by American slaves in the antebellum south. The photo was called “whipped Peter,” and it was used to stir anti-slavery sentiment by abolitionists who were discovering the power of photos to change public opinion:

An escaped enslaved man named Peter shows his scarred back at a medical examination in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1863 (Library of Congress)

What is happening in Florida is a disgrace. It is appalling and shameful. In fact, it should be considered a form of child abuse because it is. Governor Ron DeSantis is currently and deservedly being humiliated across America. His failing and flailing campaign is bankrupt and sputtering.  It is an out-of-touch debacle that will ensure he never becomes president.  The good news is that his political career is almost over.

Ron DeSantis has a lot of defects as a national candidate, but the main one is how estranged he is from the basic decency of the country and her people. He is a champion of cruelty and abuse, who is simultaneously aloof, off-putting, transgressive and extreme. His culture war insanity is appalling to the overall majority of Americans who work hard, play by the rules and want to pursue happiness and joy.

DeSantis is as profoundly estranged from the people he seeks to lead as any candidate I have ever seen. He is an alien, detached from the rhythms of American life. As I often say, t is impossible to love your country if you hate half the people living in it.

The United States is a beautiful country filled with amazing people. Somewhere along the line, Ron DeSantis lost touch with that reality — or more likely never understood it in the first place. He doesn’t really seem to understand the country. It is a big place after all.

I’ve driven across America six times in my lifetime, and I’m getting ready for my 7th. This time, it will be with my 17-year-old son. We are going to go explore some beautiful places neither of us have been before. Along the way, I’ll finally visit my 50th and last state: North Dakota. I’m excited for the trip and the open road ahead.

Optimism towards the future is an elemental value in America that DeSantis and his fellow extremists don’t understand. Anger, grievance and resentment are fuels on Twitter and Fox News, but not in real life. It’s too bad that Ron DeSantis can’t see the good out there. His blindness is disqualifying. He can’t see America, but America can see him with perfect clarity.

After the crash maybe Ron can throw some puddings in the cooler, wet wipes in the glove compartment, and hit the open road. He might learn something along the way. This is a decent country. Maybe he’d come to understand that.